Whore of Turfan Still Going…

Career Junk, and Other Strangers.

This is that weird calm before the storm.  Lucky for me, it won’t be a category five or anything since I rarely promote the way I used to.  Next month, Loud Snow will release on eManga and KINDLE.  I haven’t seen most of the artwork for it yet, so I’m excited – but this does put a cramp into my “creating time”; because my weekends are the only time I have.  Don’t even get me started on having to prep for my appearence at San Japan.  =_=;

My submission to Bruno Gmunder still sits here, mainly because I know they expect more then what I have.  Three covers, at least half the book, etc.  I have part of that, and I suspect it might be enough…but I’m avoiding it.  They’re not ‘script’ type people – they want to see the art, and I have some of that.  I need to sit down and write a cover letter and synopsis – which is killing me because I don’t have time.

And my DC notes still sit untouched.  Shit.

Games With Me sales at Emanga have chilled.  KINDLE’s have picked up – only because Amazon is actually quasi-promoting by using it in newsletter for their KINDLE.  I’ve seen it and was pleasantly surprised.  DMP seems to push only its Japanese creators – which reminds me that Games is truly just a ‘distributed’ title for them, not something they actually care about enough to push on their free time.  :/  I’m used to this I guess, having dealt with small-publishers and that mentality my entire career.  ^_^  I’m in desperate need of some publicity for ‘Games’, so hopefully the release of Loud Snow will garnish new readership.

I’m waiting on KINDLE’s new royalty schedule to begin.   I’m benefiting from the release of the iPAD and Apple’s large percentage for authors incentive—for my titles, iPad’s existence means squat, since Apple rejects anything gay-oriented that’s illustrated – no matter how smutty or chaste.  I’m shocked by this because they allow bullshit like Strip Manga Poker and other hetero-oriented sexist crap – but have two men kiss or hold hands in artwork and you get the BIG VETO.  Two women will always be ok because straight men love that shit.  As it stands now, the only way to read my books on iPhone/iPOD is to download the KINDLE ap.  That’s so balls.

Now for something important, yet stupid:

I wasn’t going to address this here but I think I must – at least in part.

Wednesday Sucks.

I’ve been revising my rough notes on Rubicon whenever I get the chance.  My notes are typically raw, poorly written, and make sense to no one but me…and yet I turned them over to MT last weekend to she can work on some basic character sheets for me.   0_0

Mestiza sits in undeveloped hell.  Sadly it’s going to remain orphaned since ‘manga’ publishers appear to be eliminating ‘writer/artist’ teams with a two-punch of ‘backend payment +no advance until complete’ and ‘artists’ bring us your stories and our editors will help you develop them’.  Original-English manga is just a dead end for me, and it sucks to have this epiphany.

We have a corporate visitor coming in today at the bank.  Oh joy.  I love it when they come in, dampen moral and get in everyone’s way and with a smile on their face, telling us how we can do our job more effectively—a job they’ve never had to do for more than 24 hours…but theoretically they’re experts at the job because they have studies showing them what it’s really like to work in a bank with customers.  ZING! It’s something like this:  teller waits on customer – afterward, the assistant branch manager gets to sit down and go over her observation of the transaction with the teller…while the corporate person observes the observation.  Laughing yet? Welcome to my hell.  No one is immune…bankers, tellers, top tellers, vault tellers…we’re all being observed while under observation.   >_<  To top it off, it’s comic book day and I wont make it to the shop on time to get the damn variant cover of Blackest Night WW #3 that I wanted, because I have to work today.  I’m going into this nightmare all ready pissy.

Will let you know if I still have a job by the end of the day. 

Boring Mom Schtuff.

I haven’t a blogged in a few days, so I thought I’d get some thoughts out before going into the bank today.

I spent Saturday with my son.  We ran some errands, went to the mall, found some speakers for his new laptop [tired of him using mine!] and pick up my daughter’s honor roll present [I get her one every time she makes honor roll]: a Domo doll.  I came home to find that my daughter was pissed at me – mainly because I went out with the boy while she was out with her dad—and now I wasn’t ready to head back out and drive her around.  >_<  Admittedly, I’m working every weekday until 6:30 – I get home around then.  I get home, I eat dinner, I check emails, I shower, then it’s around 8 so I want to sit down and chill because I have to get up at 7 in the morning.  Occasionally I’ll get two Saturdays off, but rarely – those are half-days, I’m home by 3; and even then…I need Saturday and Sunday to write.  I must write.  Sadly I have to balance that with spending time with my spouse, who also thinks I need to spend time with him–but isn’t as brutally vocal about it as my daughter.

I’ve scheduled an appearance at San Japan so that I could take my daughter and spend those days with her [I wont be talking or manning a table ALL Day] and so I was looking forward to that—yet I get home Saturday and I hear a blast of shit about how I make empty promises.  0_0. I don’t spend time with her anymore – we don’t go down to Lamar or into Austin anymore – we don’t hang out and do things anymore. It sucked to hear this because I haven’t spent time with my son in ages, and it was nice to give him some time on Saturday; I just never counted on my daughter resenting it.  I don’t like feeling as if I’m letting her down.

On the flipside, I won’t be manipulated into making time for her that I don’t have.  When I suggest we spend some time in the evenings together, I get shut down.  That’s how I know it’s not about “us”, it’s about her – being entertained and getting what she wants.  I’m forced to remind myself that despite her appearance, she’s still a kid.  Her ego is still immature and of course it’s ‘all about her’.  She knows deep down that I’m here for her if and when she needs me – just not in an ultra cool let’s go party sort of way.  :/

Bad Weather

The road to our house is covered with water all ready, and the power’s gone out twice.  :/  I know if I drive to work today, I may not get back home tonight.